Saris Freedom Spare Tire 2-Bike

Product Details

Saris Freedom Spare Tire 2-Bike

Transport all types of bikes with Saris' Freedom Spare Tire 2-bike rack. Designed to fit all spare tires (left-, right-, or center-positioned), this innovative rack adjusts to fit most bikes and sizes, including kids’ and even some recumbents, thanks to the adjustability of its center upright support. It uses quick-adjust trays and ratcheting straps to secure two bikes of up to 35 pounds each. Loading is made easy by the low tray height. The center upright support even tilts down to stay out of the way when not in use.

Bought and installed a "Thule" brand spare tire bike rack. The Thule was hard to get on, felt weak, then when it was time to get the bikes on...they wouldn't even fit! So I upgraded to Saris, which was simple to install, feels stable, and has never caused me any problems.

Rack is reasonably well made and it does work very well with one bike attached....easy to load one bike and holds bike securely.
BUT it is impossible for me to load two of my bikes of the same type/size. No matter where I position the various parts, there is always interference somewhere, either handlebars of one bike interfere with saddle of the other, or handlebar/handlebar interference if bikes are loaded facing the same way or the crank arm/chain ring of a bike interferes with the downtube cradle support. This is trying to load two 56/58cm road/gravel bikes at the same time.
The problem is that the various parts that hold the bikes (tire cradles and downtube cradles) just don't have enough room/space to provide sufficient clearance for two bikes of similar size. If they had positioned the tire cradles an inch further out from the lower support bar and made the downtube cradle support similarly wider, things likely would be better.
Another review states: "If you are going to load two large bikes you might have some trouble". In my case it was impossible. And, even if you were able to manage to position everything just right to fit two bikes of similar size, you'd have to redo everything if you tried to carry a different combination of bikes....not an uncommon thing to do.
Also, the cradle support for the downtube scratches the hell out of the paint on the downtube and I've done everything I could to prevent this including padding the cradle with a soft microfiber cloth.
Finally, if you happen to get a flat tire on your car, you've got to dismantle the whole thing to get to your spare tire. And, if you don't have a properly sized wrench with you to remove the large attaching bolt from the back support plate, you won't be able to access your spare tire at all. Then, if you are able to get to the spare tire, you've got to put everything back together in order to remount the bike rack.

This rack is lightweight and best way to go since I don't have a hitch. The main post wiggled, I haven't gotten the bolt tightened enough yet to stop this. I think without the rubber washer, it might get tighter. The video I found before deciding to purchase made the installation of the rack reasonably easy. I didn't have any trouble with the plate that attaches behind the spare tire as other reviewers expressed, but I had a previous Saris spare tire rack with same plate design. I haven't figured out yet where I could put a lock on it. The instruction sheet is all drawings and really could be clarified with some written instruction; some of the illustrations it were not clear exactly what they were trying to communicate. Especially when it got down to the essential part of how to strap the bike to the rack, kind of the whole point, right? I put the strap in the wrong opening, on all 3 straps, drove off and never saw the bike again. I'm an idiot, I guess, but don't want it to happen to anyone else. Look closely for the deeper opening where the strap slides down INTO itself. And also, tighten the feet where the tires get set into, another thing I didn't understand from the drawings. Other than those safeguards, it's lightweight and easy to get your bike into.

This spare tire bike rack is one solid piece of equipment and I love that it is made in the USA! Installation did not take too long, although I did have to move the mounting plate around a bit before the rack would attach through the center of my spare tire (2004 Honda CRV). The thing that took the longest time was figuring out how to mount two bikes so they would fit in the tire cradles and so the center arm grips would attach effectively. I would recommend a couple of additional photos or a video that demonstrates loading options for two bikes of different makes/sizes. I think the extra examples would help other folks understand the flexibility of this equipment.

This really is the perfect solution for Fat Bikes. I have regular Mountain and road as well and with the additional fat trays they all fit on one rack. Might add that I had to work personally with Saris on a warranty issue from a previous rack. The way they handled it was stellar. Thank you Saris!

been using this for 3 years now on my modified toyota LC and i needed a spare mounted rack. will be the only one i use for years to come, possibly upgrading to a superclamp soon
easy to use and very well built
MADE IN THE USA !!!
#sarisFTW

Tire Mount for a 2015 Wrangler Unlimited. Installation is easy. However the mounting bracket doesn't fit well. If you look at the video on Saris website, (I believe this is a wrangler they are using) the top two tire bolts and the mount have very small contact point. The contact point is so small that all the weight and pressure seems to be concentrated on such a small area on the bolts. I would think that this could damage the bolts. I placed the bracket on its side which gives a much better and greater contact surface area. The problem with doing it this way is that its not perfectly square, thus in the end, the rack is slightly off level. Too me it's worth having the better contact area for this offset. I also used a little Silcone lubricant spay on the attachment bolt. Too keep it clean, rust free etc. The Rack itself is of excellent quality, Bike racks live on our SUVs. This is the first Saris rack we have tried. The only time, we plan on taking the rack off is for extreme off roading. The only reason for that is to ensure rear clearance of the rack. Of course you would have to do this for any platform rack including anything that could be mounted to any trailer hitch. In any event, we just recently put the rack on and it seems very stable, strong and everything you would want in a bike rack. I found the attachment points to the bike to my liking. After the first setup, the bikes really fit nicely, they could not be any easier to put on and take off, just a great rack. We are using it for our 26 inch Specialized Stump Jumper and Eros. Total weight of both bikes is about 56 lbs. True, this doesn't come with locks but personally I think such locks give a false sense of security and we don't use them on our other hitch carrier that comes with them. Any crook can easily get through any such device quickly. The other issue I saw on reviews of this product is it doesn't fold up. It sticks out 18 inches from the Wrangle gate tire, My folded up bike hitch on my other SUV sticks out 10 inches. To me this is a non issue as I am aware of it. Overall, I would have given this Saris bike rack 5 plus stars if it wasn't for the mounting bracket. I would even pay a little more money for a better bracket as this rack is that good.

I have an FJ Cruiser and I wasn't going to go for the hitch type of rack and give up opening the rear door. The spare tire rack solved this problem very nicely. Easy adjusting for 2 bikes to strap on quickly and easily. The only negative I have is that, once on, the rack doesn't want to unbolt and come off. The bolt gets dirt on the threads inside the tire mount and won't unscrew. If the mount and the rack receiving port were a little beefier it could be locked on with a hitch pin making removal very easy.
Overall, this is the best rack I have seen for this application.

I've been using this rack a lot for the last 6 months for both road and mountain bikes - its survived some serious Colorado Jeep roads. Its strong and reliable and I give Saris 5 big stars for being the first (and so far only) to market with a tray mounted spare tire rack. Yes, installation is fairly easy - its also VERY easy to cross thread the mounting bolt into the spare tire plate. I give Saris 1 star on their wheel and frame ratchet strap design... the one piece molded plastic solution is a constant struggle. Also the spare tire plate itself seems to be a free-for-all as far as positioning. The spare tire plate on my old Yakima rack was much better designed (although the Yakiima rack itself was disspointing) Overall I recommend this rack - it gets the job done for us Wrangler drives that value being able to use our swing-gates... but the rack could be better. Folding would be great, and a non-fame attaching solution would be be even better.